No matter what what industry you belong to, it’s important to provide quality information to your site readers. For example, if your business provides insurance services, it’s a good idea to publish information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical findings, insurance tips, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it takes a lot of time and expertise. You have to do a lot of information sifting, researching and organizing, checking sources for accuracy, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually make sure that this information is kept up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to regularly provide your users with expert, up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your blog subscribers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS Made Simple
- RSS, which, according to some stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog post items, news, videos, etc., which users can then subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata such as published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then view any updates posted on these websites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their web content.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feed readers. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine different RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from multiple sites.
In this comprehensive article, we explain where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide a simple and easy way for online users to keep up with the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at how content syndication is used.
Many news reporting agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources all around the world.
Content syndication allows online newspapers to deliver readers the most recent news headlines and content of general interest from all over the globe without having to set up additional news reporters and writers everywhere around the world …
(Global media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources around the world.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately with other sites. Digital news publishers syndicate their content using feeds …
(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share information with other publications)
Most websites actually would like you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Major content sites provide links to an RSS feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “courier rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many digital news publishers and major sites include a feed section. Image: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content sections of the site …
(A list of feeds. Source: New York Times RSS)
gives readers access to content from different areas of the website (e.g. business news, travel news, health news, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain subcategory feeds …
(RSS Feed section. Image: Los Angeles Times)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use a feed is copy the URL and paste it into an application that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
Adding content from someone else’s website or blog on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s website additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create this content …
(The Benefits Of Syndicating Content)
While adding a feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s worth keeping in mind that you also want other websites to syndicate your content.
When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Get visitors to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
Your WordPress RSS Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your WP theme, there are a number of ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed in a standard or custom menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta widget)
2) You can also find links and buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can copy the feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on your theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Social Share, Link To Us, or Follow Us toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Links, Share, or Follow section)
4) You can also view your feed by typing your site’s URL into a browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your website or blog is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your WordPress RSS page …
(Feed items as seen using a Firefox web browser)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(Feed entries viewed using Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many posts you would like displayed in your RSS page, go to your Reading Settings section and enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Syndication feeds)
Your feed page will display the number of items you have specified section …
(Your feed will show the number of posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or as a summary …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how content in your feeds will display)
To learn more about using WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all you have to do to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website whose content you want to subscribe to and search for a ‘subscribe’ link or icon …
(Search for a ’subscribe to feed’ link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Source: Feedreader.com)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.
How To Add Feeds To WordPress Sites
Let’s show you how to add content from other website or blog’s RSS feeds to your site.
Adding A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you could add to your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding content from their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, Facebook comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu)
copy the RSS feed from a website containing content that you want to display on your sidebar to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, go to your Widgets panel and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your site in your web browser. The content can now be seen on the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been inserted) …
(RSS Widget)
Add Your WordPress RSS Feed To Search Consoles
You can add your WordPress RSS feed to Google and Bing’s search consoles. This will help them index your content faster.
(WordPress RSS feed added to Google Search Console)
Adding your site’s RSS feed to search consoles is simple, fast, easy, and requires no technical skills. For a step-by-step tutorial, go here:
How To Add Content From RSS Feeds To Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to a post? It sure can!
You can do this using plugins. Search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ screen – WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us for assistance with plugin configuration.
The plugins listed below can be used to feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico)
WPeMatico is an easy to use auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you specify.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange feeds into categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin with extended functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Post Importer allows you to import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of each feed item as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin automatically combines and displays content from a number of different RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom fonts, colors, backgrounds, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in every language.
The premium version contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of powerful features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress)
FeedWordPress provides versatile syndication options for WordPress-generated content.
As stated in the FeedWordPress website …
FeedWordPress is an open-source Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress blog publishing platform. You set up feeds that you choose, and FeedWordPress syndicates posts from those sources into your WordPress posts table, where they can be displayed by your WordPress templates like any other post — but with additional meta-data, so that your templates can properly attribute the post to the source it came from.
You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types lets you display pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Using WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying feeds of your posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.
To see these, locate the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users can be seen in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed items viewed using Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Comments feed items viewed with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste the comments feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: Feedreader)
Note: If the Meta section is not displaying on your theme, you can view the Comments RSS section of your site by opening up a browser and typing in the following URL:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/comments/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/comments/feed (if your WP site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Specific Item Feeds
Being able to create an RSS feed for specific post items can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for displaying an RSS feed for specific posts is shown below:
(Single Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the post URI, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Category Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in syndicating content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
With WordPress, you can create separate category feeds.
All you have to do is use the format below:
(WordPress category feed format)
Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy the selected category link address …)
Add “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for post categories)
Your category RSS feed will now only contain content published under this particular category …
(Category feed page)
The WordPress Codex also provides different ways to create feeds not just for post categories, but also feeds for tags, authors, search, etc.
For this example, let’s create a feed for a specific post category using the format shown below:
(Post Category feed format. Source: WordPress Codex)
Here is the feed format WordPress recommends using. In this example, the post category ID is ’42’. We’ll need to replace the post category ID and the domain name …
(WordPress post category feed format)
To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …
(Posts > Categories menu)
Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …
(Post Category ID)
In our example, the post category ID is ’29’ and the post category feed format we need to use for this specific category with our domain name looks like this …
(Post category feed format with domain name and ID)
Copy and paste the feed into your browser and hit enter …
(Paste the feed into your browser)
This will display the feed for that specific category …
(RSS feed of a specific post category)
Note that in this example, WordPress automatically converted the feed format we pasted into the browser into the category feed we had used in the previous section of this tutorial …
(Post category feed format)
Here is the feed format again …
(Post category feed)
In this case, the simplest way to create additional feeds for specific categories is to simply change the post category slug …
(Change the post category slug to create a new category specific feed)
Paste the edited feed into your web browser and hit enter to display the content for that specific category’s feed …
(Post category feed content)
Now that you have a method for creating feeds for specific post categories (or tags, authors, etc.), you can even create a directory or list of individual feeds for visitors.
Tip #4 – Publish A Directory Of RSS Feeds
You can provide your own feeds page that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories …
(Provide Your Own Directory Of RSS Feeds On Your Site)
All you need to do is link an RSS icon like the one shown below to category feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all your category feeds on a new page …
(RSS button. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
We have written a detailed tutorial on inserting tables into WordPress posts here:
RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize RSS in several ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows several RSS feed configurations without code editing skills. For example, here are some of the kinds of feed formats you can create …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the table above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that displays your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Feed that contains the latest comments posted on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that displays single items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on specific items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/06/31/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/02/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Feed displaying the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes latest post entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
Remember to promote your feed. Place a ’subscribe to RSS’ links somewhere visible …
(Encourage your visitors to subscribe to your RSS feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other sites will only subscribe to your content if you provide useful content. In other words, focus on providing your subscribers with high-quality information that will add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add someone else’s content and get others to share your content with WordPress and RSS!)
If you need great content ideas subscribe to our FREE content creation course using the form below:
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our feed 🙂
RSS – Additional Resources:
- RSS Feed Icons – Visit an online resource site like www.iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss images”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org – Official WordPress documentation. Visit this site for more information about using feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other sites to your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To read more about the benefits of using the WP CMS software please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now